This invention relates to method and system for servicing generally complex equipment, and, more particularly, to computer-based method and system for identifying repeatedly malfunctioning equipment.
The diagnosis, maintenance, and repair of generally complex equipment, such as mobile assets including on-road or off-road vehicles, ships, airplanes, railroad locomotives, trucks, and other forms of complex equipment including industrial equipment, consumer appliance equipment, medical imaging equipment, equipment used in industrial processes, telecommunications, aerospace applications, power generation, etc., involves extremely complex and time consuming processes. In the case of transportation equipment, efficient and cost-effective operation of a fleet of vehicles necessitates a reduction in the number of vehicle road failures and minimization of vehicle down-time. This can be accomplished by predicting impending failures, by performing preventative maintenance, and by performing repairs quickly and accurately. For example, it will be appreciated that the ability to predict failures before they occur allows for performing condition-based maintenance. Such maintenance can be conveniently scheduled based on statistically and probabilistically meaningful vehicle status information, instead of performing the maintenance regardless of the actual condition of a respective system, subsystem, assembly, subassembly, part, etc., such as would be the case if the maintenance is routinely performed independent of whether any of the foregoing structures actually requires the maintenance.
The conventional diagnosis and repair process for most vehicles and other generally complex equipment is based on the experience of the service technician, using paper-based information describing the structure and operation of the equipment, and performance records maintained in a log. Examining the log entries, experienced service technicians can use their accumulated experience and training in mapping incidents occurring in locomotive systems, subsystems, assemblies, subassemblies, etc., to problems that may be causing these incidents. For simple problems, this process works well. However, if the problem is complex and the root cause difficult to discern, the experienced technician may be unable to identify the problem and certainly much less likely to prognosticate problems before they occur.
Various equipment often incorporates diagnostic controls and sensors that report faults when anomalous operating conditions of the equipment arise. Typically, to diagnose the problem, a technician will study the fault log to identify the nature of the problem and determine whether a repair is necessary. While the fault log can provide some diagnosis and repair information, the technician also relies substantially on his prior experiences with the equipment, or others like it, to make a full diagnosis.
To conduct the repair, the technician uses block diagrams, exploded diagrams, parts lists, assembly drawings, schematics, etc. The repair information may be applicable only to a specific equipment by model number; the repair information will generally not be unique to the specific equipment undergoing repair. It will be apparent that as the complexity of the equipment increases, the amount of paper needed to describe the equipment to assist with the repair process likewise increases. Again, the technician will rely on his experiences with the equipment, and others like it, to perform the repair.
Yet another problem with a paper-based system is the variety of field-deployed equipment configurations, each having its own unique technical support documentation. In the case of locomotives, even for a specific model (identified by a model number), there may be several locomotive configurations as locomotive subsystems were redesigned or changed during the model production run. Thus, in a sense, no two locomotives are the same. Adding this configuration complexity to a paper-based system presents an inordinately complex and unmanageable problem of locating the correct technical repair documentation for a specific locomotive.
Another repair issue involving complex equipment, such as railroad locomotives or other mobile or stationary assets, is the unavailability of a repair history from which one could predict component failures and undertake preventative maintenance beforehand. Technicians with wide ranging and lengthy experiences may be able to predict a component failure and repair it to avoid a breakdown during operation, in some limited situations.
One tool available for locomotive repair manually downloads fault logs from a locomotive while it is parked at a maintenance facility. These fault logs are then uploaded to the railroad maintenance service center. The tool also includes standardized helpful hints for repair tasks and fault analysis descriptors based on single failure faults. Although such a device represents an improvement over a paper-based system, it falls short of the informational needs for a complex equipment, such as a locomotive, and fails to advantageously utilize the various technologies available for more efficiently predicting and performing the repair.
The techniques of the present invention in one aspect thereof may be useful for identifying repeatedly malfunctioning equipment and root causes therefor. For example, when a particular replaceable part at a given location of the equipment repeatedly fails, may result in costly and time consuming repairs that may not identify the root causes of such repeated malfunctions. The valuable servicing resources of the owners and/or users of the equipment need to be efficiently used to compete in the market place. However, such efficiencies may not be achieved due to the lack of systematic and reliable methodologies for identifying and communicating the findings of such malfunctions. Thus, it would be desirable for service personnel to have available to them techniques for systematically and reliably identifying the repeatedly malfunctioning equipment and root causes therefor.
Generally, the present invention fulfills the foregoing needs by providing in one aspect thereof, a computerized method for identifying repeatedly malfunctioning equipment and root causes therefor. The method allows to provide a database comprising detailed equipment data including data indicative of historical equipment malfunctions in a plurality of pieces of equipment. The equipment data includes a unique equipment identifier for uniquely relating each malfunction to respective equipment. The method further allows to analyze the data base for a selected time window to review equipment malfunctions logged in the database and resulting in servicing activities over that time window. An equipment malfunction threshold for the number of malfunctions occurring during a predetermined period of time is established. The database is configured to automatically issue a report identifying any respective equipment as a repeatedly-malfunctioning-equipment whenever the number of equipment malfunctions resulting in servicing activities over that time window exceeds the equipment malfunction threshold. An input/output device is provided to communicate with said database to receive the report from the database. A work order for the repeatedly-malfunctioning-equipment is instantiated, wherein the order is configured to remain open at least until service personnel logs comment data into the work order indicative of possible root causes for the repeatedly malfunctioning equipment.
The present invention further fulfills the foregoing needs by providing in another aspect thereof a computerized system for identifying repeatedly malfunctioning equipment and root causes therefor. The system includes a database comprising detailed equipment data including data indicative of historical equipment malfunctions in a plurality of pieces of equipment. The equipment data includes a unique equipment identifier for uniquely relating each malfunction to respective equipment. A processor is configured to analyze the data base for a selected time window to review equipment malfunctions logged in the database and resulting in servicing activities over that time window. Memory is configured to store an equipment malfunction threshold for the number of malfunctions occurring during a predetermined period of time. A report module in the database is configured to automatically issue a report identifying any respective equipment as a repeatedly-malfunctioning-equipment whenever the number of equipment malfunctions resulting in servicing activities over that time window exceeds the equipment malfunction threshold. An input/output device is configured to communicate with the database to receive the report from the database. The device is further configured to instantiate a work order for the repeatedly-malfunctioning-equipment, wherein said order is configured to remain open at least until service personnel logs comment data into the work order indicative of possible root causes for the repeatedly malfunctioning equipment.